Preface

These chapters introduce another interface to MH that is accessible
through the GNU Emacs editor, namely, mh-e. mh-e is easy to use.
I don't assume that you know GNU Emacs or even MH at this point, since I
didn't know either of them when I discovered mh-e. However, mh-e was
the tip of the iceberg, and I discovered more and more niceties about
GNU Emacs and MH. Now I'm fully hooked on both of them.

The mh-e package is distributed with GNU Emacs, (1) so you
shouldn't have to do anything special to use it. But it's important to
note a brief history of mh-e. Version 3 was prevalent through the
Emacs 18 and early Emacs 19 years. Then Version 4 came out
(Emacs 19.23), which introduced several new and changed commands.
Finally, Version 5.0 was released, which fixed some bugs and
incompatibilities, and was incorporated into Emacs 19.29. This is
the version covered by this manual. 1.2 Getting Started will help
you decide which version you have.

If you don't already use GNU Emacs but want to learn more, you can read
an online tutorial by starting GNU Emacs and typing C-h t
(help-with-tutorial). (This notation is described in
1.1 GNU Emacs Terms and Conventions.) If you want to take the plunge, consult the
section `GNU Emacs Manual' in The GNU Emacs Manual,
from the Free Software Foundation.

If more information is needed, you can go to the Unix manual pages of
the individual MH commands. When the name is not obvious, I'll guide
you to a relevant MH manual page that describes the action more fully.

I hope you enjoy these chapters! If you have any comments, or
suggestions for this document, please let me know.